Service management as a practice
Service management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services .
What is service management ?
Intangible nature of the output and intermediate products of service process: difficult to measure , control , and validate .
Demand is tightly coupled with customer’s assets : users and other customer assets such as processes , applications , documents and transactions arrive with demand and stimulate service production .
High-level of contact for producers and consumers of services : little or no buffer between the customer , the front – office and back – office .
The perishable nature of service output and service capacity : there is value for the customer in receiving assurance that the service will continue to be supplied with consistent quality . Providers need to secure a steady supply of demand from customers .
A service is a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks .
What are services?
The preceding paragraph is not just a definition , as it is a recurring pattern found in a wide range of services . Patterns are useful for managing complexity , costs , flexibility and variety .
They are generic structure useful to make an idea work in a wide range of environments and situations . In each instance the pattern is applied with variations that make the idea effective , economical , or simply useful in that particular case .
Business outcomes are produced by business process governed by objectives , policies and constraints .the process are supported by resources including people , knowledge , applications and infrastructure .
Workflow coordinates the execution of tasks and flow of control between resources , and intervening action to ensure adequate performance and desired outcomes .
The Business Process
Business processes are particularly important from a service management perspective .
They apply the organization’s cumulative knowledge and experience to the achievement of a particular outcome .
Service management has a set of principles to be used for analysis , inference , and action in various situations involving services .
These principle complement the functions and processes described elsewhere in the ITIL core library .
Principles of service management
When functions and processes are to be changed , these principles provide the necessary guidance and reference .
When solving problems related to services , these principles are to be used to resolve ambiguity and conflict .
A system is a group of interacting , interrelated , or interdependent components that form a unified whole , operating together for a common purpose .
Principles of systems
Control processes in which the value of the outcome has no influence on the process input are open- loop .
Control processes in which the value of the outcome has influence on the process input in such a manner as to maintain the desired value are closed-loop .
It is an outcome – based mindset.
Open –loop and closed-loop control processes
Feedback and learningThe feedback can be positive or self-reinforcing , leading to exponential growth or decline .
The feedback can be negative or self-correcting leading to balance or equilibrium.
The architecture of the ITIL core is based on a service lifecycle . Each volume of the core is represented in the service lifecycle .
Service design , service transition and service operation are progressive phases of the lifecycle that represent change and transformation .
Service strategy represents policies and objectives .
Continual service improvement represents learning and improvement.
The service lifecycle